Category: mergers

‘The competition watchdog has launched a formal investigation into whether the proposed £12bn merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda could hurt consumers and the small businesses that supply the supermarkets.’

‘The Competition and Markets Authority said it will be considering whether the merger could result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services.’

‘Trinity Mirror’s £200m deal to buy the Express and Star newspapers is to be investigated by media regulator Ofcom over issues including plurality and the editorial independence of Richard Desmond’s titles.’

‘A campaigning group opposed to Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of Sky is threatening a legal challenge to the media regulator’s ruling that the broadcaster would remain “fit and proper” to hold a UK licence if it was snapped up by 21st Century Fox.’

‘The Competition Bulletin is pleased to welcome the third in a three-part series of blogs on Brexit and merger control by Ben Forbes and Mat Hughes of AlixPartners. Ben and Mat are (with others) co-authors of the new Sweet & Maxwell book, “UK Merger Control: Law and Practice”.’

‘The Competition Bulletin is pleased to welcome the second in a three-part series of blogs on Brexit and merger control by Ben Forbes and Mat Hughes of AlixPartners. Ben and Mat are (with others) co-authors of the new Sweet & Maxwell book, “UK Merger Control: Law and Practice”.’

‘On 5 February 2015, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report entitled ‘The UK Competition Regime’. The report assesses the performance of the UK competition regulators, focusing on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It concludes that the CMA has inherited certain strengths, including a positive legacy of merger and market investigation work. However, it has also inherited problems in competition enforcement, which derive, according to the NAO, from a difficult legal environment, very low business awareness of the organisation and competition law more broadly, and reputational damage caused by a series of high profile losses in court.’

‘The CMA is investigating grocer Netto’s completed acquisition of three stores from Co-Operative Group. The announcement of a fresh UK merger control investigation comes in the wake of the CMA’s July 2015 clearance of the transaction and after learning that it should have been notified to the European Commission under the EU Merger Regulation.’

‘One of the largest local authority shared legal services could be created later this year if the proposed integration of HB Public Law and the legal services department at Buckinghamshire County Council goes ahead.’

‘The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Eurotunnel II ([2015] UKHL 75) brings some much-needed clarity to what was becoming a rather opaque corner of the UK merger regime. It also contains statements of general principle which are bound to make it one of the most frequently-cited merger cases.’

‘Earlier this year, I suggested that the law on when an asset acquisition might amount to a merger was somewhat opaque. The Court of Appeal’s decision in Eurotunnel II [2015] EWCA Civ 487 has brought some additional clarity, although the messy procedural history of that case has caused its own problems.’

‘Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011, human rights due diligence requirements are progressively finding their way into hard law, for instance, in reporting and compliance regulations. Examples of recent regulatory developments include the EU Directive on non-financial reporting, the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, and section 1502 of the US Dodd-Frank Act. Proposals relating to mandatory human rights due diligence have been initiated in the EU, France and Switzerland, and the UN Human Rights Council has now appointed an intergovernmental working group to explore the possibility of a binding treaty on business and human rights.’Full story